This past weekend I’d posted about the UFO Watchtower, a place I’d visited about once a year since 2005, then hadn’t been to for a couple years. I’d talked of trying to make my way down there this year, for certain. Well, no sooner had I posted that post, when my wife says, “Do you wanna go today?”

I’d never even considered it, and had, in fact, been looking to head down there in a couple weeks.

There’s nothing like a road trip…heading out on the open road, leaving the cares and chores of everyday life for asphalt (or concrete) and rolling scenery. It was a gorgeous Saturday. Blue, sunny skies, mid-to-upper eighties. We only ran into one glitch, with a temporary delay just south of Colorado City. A pickup truck and it’s camper had flipped and gone off the Interstate. As we’d approached, I’d seen the Flight-for-Life chopper heading north, low, off to the right of us. The accident had happened before we’d driven by, so we didn’t have much of a delay. Was a heck of an accident, but, so far, both people have survived. The truck ended up pointing north, but was on the southbound side of the Interstate. Must have been quite the flip. Was sad to see so many personal effects scattered about, like a cat carrier (what happened to the cat?), clothes, and any of the standard items people take with them on vacation, spread out alongside the road. We wish them well.

It did take us a little over 3 hours to get to the Alamosa area. We had to eat, but the restaurant we frequented while there, Dos Rios,

UFO Enchilada, Calvillos Restaurant, Alamosa

had been bought out and renamed, so we went to Calvillos, instead. We’d been there before, and the food was great. The maître d’ was extremely attentive.

Of course, I had to have the “UFO Enchiladas.”

We then backtracked and took a left on Highway 17, up to the UFO Watchtower.

Well, though it’d been a few years, turns out not much had changed. We did find that the green alien sign that had been on the right side of Highway 17 was no longer there. Those (Judy Messoline, owner and operator of The UFO Watchtower, had later told us), had been removed at the behest of the Colorado DOT. It had all been part of the Lady Bird Johnson Beautify America “act” years ago. No advertising billboards in non-industrial areas—even though Judy owns the land upon which said billboards resided. Apparently when land has a road bisecting it, you cannot put up any signs that advertise and tell drivers to “turn here.” Okay, I get that. This stretch of Highway 17 isn’t busy, so drivers can (and probably do) simply stop and backup to see the signs at her entrance. Makes for a good story….

Anyway, the road to turn left on, off of Highway 17 into the Watchtower, indeed remains a dirt road. Once off Highway 17, Judy has her little alien directional signs to the Watchtower, and most things there remain the same. The Garden is much more packed with visitor trinkets. Once section was of particular note, given I’m a writer: there were tons of pens and pencils jammed into the earth (I’d meant to take a picture of that, but got sidetracked, so never did…).

Judy isn’t smoking as much anymore, and, in fact, never lit one up once, while we were there. She says she no longer smokes as much, and is actually using e-cigarettes now. But her patio table and chairs remain outside, under the Watchtower’s mesh platform, and she still has several dogs, one of which was there when we’d last visited. Another she’d lost to an illness, if I remember right. Had a couple new ones.

Judy Messoline, Owner/Operator, UFO Watchtower

And, Judy remains as friendly and outgoing as ever!

Judy’s gift shop is a little more sparse. She no longer has her horses or cattle. Too expensive to care for, et cetera, so she had to let them go to someone who could give them adequate care and attention. All I could think was the same applied to her gift shop. Things are just more expensive now, is all. She showed me some new additions to her notebook on strange incidents, like how one visitor took pictures of the The Garden, her pictures had shown orbs in them…her camera had malfunctioned (actually stopped working)…and when she’d returned home, The Garden pictures had disappeared from her camera. Okay. As you can see, below, my picture remained…and no orbs. Inneresting, as my Man With No Name character would say….

Another funny thing happened: while as I was setting up my books for consignment in Judy’s gift shop, from behind me I heard someone hail me by name. I turn around, and it’s Ron Cree, a writer friend of mine. Of all places to meet someone who actually knows me…it’s usually my wife who runs into people she knows, since she was essentially raised in Colorado (an early transplant)! I haven’t seen Ron in some two years, since the last writer’s conference I’d attended (and he mentioned he hadn’t seen me at the last one). He and his friend had been on a road trip, and were heading north. So we chatted a bit, took some pictures, and off they returned to their road trip. On his way out, Ron had gone back to his car to fetch something for The Garden. On his return he called to me to show me what he thought would be perfect for him to leave as a “Garden gift”: a writer’s conference pen. We both chuckled, and he stuck it in the ground, by one of the so-called “vortex centers.” Was good seeing ya, Ron! He mentioned he’d just sent his next novel manuscript to his agent. Be on the look-out for that. He writes for young adults, but mostly 30-something women seem to like reading his work.

It was cool finally “delivering” on my promise to give Judy a copy of ERO…and to leave a few (signed!) copies behind for

The Garden, from Atop Watchtower

consignment, and some ERO business cards. I also left copies of Sleepwalkers and The Uninvited. Be interesting to see how they do, especially given her upcoming UFO Conference, July 26th and 27th. One thing we forgot to do was sign in at the gift shop’s register, dang it.

As we hung out at the watchtower, I was up on the platform, just hanging out, when I see this “interesting” bird fly low, over the tops of the brush, some distance out from us. I grab my binoculars, and home in on it…and find a whole parliament of ground owls! I counted seven! And they were so funny, the lot of them just hanging out at this one location, just messing around with each other, hopping on and of brush, branches, and each other! So, we figured, they must have been young ones. One of them seemed larger, probably the mom. We didn’t have any “long lenses,” just our little digital camera, which took far better pictures than I’d expected,given the distance, even if blurry. But, maybe the photos were blurry for a reason? Were they really ground owls…or “screen memories”…memory images (or photographs…?) of aliens replaced by something familiar or perhaps friendly (owls or deer are typical screen memories of aliens). We watched them for quite a while, it was the coolest thing!

But, alas, no UFO sightings.

We had a great time talking with Judy, and a couple other visitors who stopped by while we were there, but come around 7 p.m., she had to part company.

Ground Owls…or “Screen Memory” Aliens Keeping Watch….

We then drove to Monte Vista, to The Best Western Movie Manor hotel we always stay at. The rooms are named after movie stars, and we stayed in room 102, this time, the “Paul Newman” room. The movies were Dragon 2 and Transformers. From within the hotel rooms, you can only see one of the screens, and the one we could watch was Dragon 2. Didn’t do anything for me, so only watched part of it before calling it a night. That didn’t keep us from getting some popcorn and (for me) a hotdog, though. This really is a unique hotel…there’s no other like it that I’m aware of in the US, anyway. Do check it out if you can! You can call ahead to see what movies are playing, and if you want to see the other screen, you can hop in your car and drive in to the other one, for free. We love drive-ins, and do try to make at least one drive-in a summer. When we had our dog, Mac, and our truck (and the local drive-in that is now a Wal-Mart…), we used to back into the drive-in slot, and all pile into the truck bed, blankets and sleeping bags and watch in the open air! So, try to support you local drive-ins, if you can!

So, the trip was fun, not much had changed, and it was good seeing Judy (and Ron!) again. If you’re ever “in the neighborhood, do make a trip down to Hooper-way, and tell them we sent ya!

By the way, as I post this, it is the 67th anniversary of the Roswell Incident, July 1-4, 1947. Again, I hadn’t planned this. Funny how it all happened, though. Synchronicity.

Well, the mission is similar in scope to the likes of Area 51 or the Marfa Lights Viewing Area. Located in Saguache County, Colorado, in the heart of the San Luis Valley—where all the “weird shit” one hears about in Colorado originates (e.g., cattle mutilation, UFO sightings)—is this interesting little destination run by Judy Messoline, called the UFO Watchtower.

Near as I can tell, my wife and I made our first excursion there back in July 23, 2005, the same year Judy’s book, That Crazy Lady Down The Road, came out. I forgot about how or when I’d first been made aware of the Watchtower, but once I’d heard about it—and the Best Western Movie Manor hotel, with its own drive-in theater you can watch and listen to from your hotel room—I had to go there.

Alamosa, Colorado is located about 3 hours southwest of Colorado Springs, west of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument (also a great place to visit!). When you hit the town of Alamosa (if you take the I-25/Highway 160 route), you take a right on Highway 17, and head north. About 22 1/2 miles later, just north of Hooper, Colorado, you might see (if it’s still there), off on the right, after you past the Colorado Gators Reptile Park (I told you, this is an interesting place, didn’t I?), a little green alien waving at you (I can’t remember if we’d been told the little guy had been stolen or not, but, in any event, it used to be there…). A half-mile later, you’ll take that left (on our first trip there, my wife had played the X-Files soundtrack, as we pulled up to the place; it was surprisingly—or not so surprisingly—apropos to the mood!). You’ll be able to see the Watchtower from the road at that point. Out in the middle of your average, everyday Colorado plains. You’ll then follow a side road (I think it was a dirt road when we last went) around to the right, veering away from the campground entrance off on the left, and end up in the little dirt parking lot. If Judy’s not immediately there, she’ll eventually catch up, maybe like she did with us, in her golf cart, with her “little friend.”

Judy runs this little “bubble” gift shop hut, in which she sells all manner of book, posters, and fun “alien and paranormal stuff.” It’s beneath the UFO Watchtower, and the dome-shaped structure fits perfectly in-line with the location’s mission: to promote and observe extraterrestrial phenomena.

And hold stimulation conversations on the patio, beneath the Watchtower.

Along with Judy’s campground is a bed & breakfast, which should have already begun taking reservations (see site). In front of her watchtower is a place, called “The Garden,” which she built in 2002 (again, see the site, and click on “The Garden” link under the “Must See Tower Links”; she has a lot going on at her website, so check it out). The Garden, we are told, is the center of a cosmic vortex…but I have never seen this vortex that others have claimed to see. That’s cool. We all have our superpowers.

Entry to the Watchtower used to be free, with a requested donation (which we always paid), but I now see that she charges a mandatory $2 to enter. Judy (when not doing her chores and all) usually sits out there with any guests and shoots the breeze, as she smokes her cigarettes, her dogs milling about. In the past, she’d occasionally put out cookies or some kind of munchies. She’s very easy to get along with and will chat with you about near anything. I think on our last trip down there, a fiddlist friend of hers, from up Denver way, had her instrument out and played a tune or two for us—then later showed me some basic violin handling. It was fun…sitting out on the plains during that summer, listening to our own private, little concert, then getting a private, mini-violin lesson!

It was also on our first trip there, back in 2005, after we’d left the Watchtower, that we stopped at a couple of locations, in Hooper,

UFO Watchtower, Hooper, Colorado

and asked around about any strange activity people might have seen. Besides the personal interest in things-paranormal, I was getting ready to begin work on my novel, ERO, so I’d come down here to do what UFO research I could, in my own “backyard,” so to speak. And, surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), we found everyone we talked to open and eager to share their stories of seeing strange things in the San Luis Valley skies. The strangest of these was from one lady who told us of a great-great-grandmother who’d seen a hovering craft flying around over Blanca Peak, to the east of Hooper. It had been above the mountain…then descended down and into the top of it.

Yes, great-great-grandmother. Who’d seen this in the late 1800’s.

Over the next five or so years, we’d gone back to the Watchtower about once a year, and I’d given Judy progress reports on how my UFO novel had been coming along. We had some interesting conversations, about things she’d seen, things others had seen. UFO speculation. Conspiracy theories. You know the drill. She showed me some cool pictures, books, and other things in her gift shop, and I bought an item or two. It has been several years since those annual pilgrimages, and with this year, we hope to make another. I’ve sent Judy a copy of ERO, but have only just done so (am kinda embarrassed I hadn’t earlier—I thought I had, but it had just gotten lost in all the “paperwork” of life…). Be interesting to talk with her about it, once she’s read it….

Now, every year, for I don’t know how long, Judy also hosts a UFO Conference. This year’s conference is July 26th and 27th. On her site is a brochure that can be checked out. The hyperlink is cute. Or, again, check out her Facebook link. She also hosts annual UFO Watches,and has had members of MUFON in attendance.

As mentioned, Judy has also written a book. It’s about her life and the creation of the UFO Watchtower. She discusses what brought her down to the Hooper area, the creation of the watchtower and its “garden,” and of course, aliens abductees, and sightings. I’d read it years ago, and made for interesting reading. Some of the info in there makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, even if you’ve read it elsewhere. It all still makes you think, and will make for great conversation fodder!

Judy and her Watchtower have even been featured on the Travel Channel (2011), with Alejandro Rojas, as well as other interviews. She seems very busy, and in demand, for having been pegged…”That crazy lady down the road….”

Check out Judy’s Facebook page. She may also be contacted at 719/378-2296, or by e-mail, at ufowatchtower “at” yahoo.com.